Author: DK Mittal
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: June 13, 2003
In his letter, 'Tipu Sultan: Eye
of the tiger' (May 31), Mr Obaidur Rahman Nadwi alleges a section of religious
fanatics (read Hindus) has launched "a campaign to denigrate Muslims, particularly
those who played a leading role in India's struggle against the British.
A recent publication. Tipu Sultan was a Patriot or a Religious Bigot? is
part of this design". The author, DH Shankara Murty, has reportedly said
Tipu invited Afghans and other raiders from Central Asia to invade India
with instructions "execute a genocide of Hindus". Mr Nadwi rubbishes the
claim. How one wishes what he says were true!
But Tipu himself left behind personal
accounts of his atrocities against the Hindus. These details can be found
in two autobiographies: Sultan-ut Tawarikh and Tarikh-i-Khudadadi, housed
in the India Office Library, London. Noted historian KM Panicker chanced
upon Tipu's correspondence at the India Office Library. These have since
been published. Take a letter (March 22, 1788) written to Abdul Khadar:
"Over 12,000 Hindus were honoured with Islam ... Local Hindus should be
brought before you and then converted to Islam. No Namboodri should be
spared."
In a letter (December 14, 1788),
he said to his army commander in Calicut: "You should capture and kill
all Hindus. Those below 20 years may be kept in prison and 5,000 from the
rest should be killed hanging from treetops". Writing on January 19, 1790,
to Badroos Saman Khan, he said: "I have achieved a great victory recently
in Malabar and over four lakh Hindus were converted to Islam. I am now
determined to march against the cursed Raman Nair." Tipu issued orders
in different parts of Malabar: "All means, truth or falsehood, fraud or
force, should be employed to effect their (Hindu) universal conversion
to Islam" (Historical Sketches of the South of India in an attempt to trace
the History of Mysore, Mark Wilks Vol II, page 120).
Tipu corresponded with Zaman Shah,
grandson Ahmad Shah Abdali and ruler of Afghanistan before the Third Mysore
War (1792) and continued to do so till 1798. These letters were translated
by Kabir Kausar in The History of Tipu Sultan. In one place, he wrote:
"My exalted ambition has for its object a holy war ... In the midst of
this land the Almighty protects this trace of Muhammadan dominion like
the Ark of Noah and cuts short the extended arm of the abandoned infidel".
In a letter dated February 5, 1797: "We should unite in carrying on a holy
war against the enemies of our religion.... Thine armies shall ... render
us victorious."
What Fra Bartolomaco, a Portuguese
traveller and historian, saw in Malabar in 1790, he recorded in Voyage
to East Indies: "Most of the men and women were hanged in Calicut ... That
barbarian Tipu Sultan tied naked Christians and Hindus to the legs of elephants
... till the bodies ... were torn to prices. Temples and churches were
ordered to be burnt down, desecrated and destroyed ... I myself helped
many victims to cross the Varappuzha river" (pgs 141-142).
The sword of Tipu Sultan carried
an inscription in Persian: "My victorious Sabre is lightening for the destruction
of the unbelievers. Thou art our Lord, make him victorious who promotes
the faith of Muhammad. Confound him, who refuses the faith of Muhammad
and withold us from those who are so inclined" (History of Mysore, CH Rao,
Vol III, p 1073). The Mysore Gazetteer also provides details about Tipu's
destruction of over 800 temples in South India. Who should we believe -
Mr Nadwi or what Tipu Sultan's own accounts and other contemporary records?
